The Indiana High School Athletic Association held the sectional pairings show for the 45th annual football state tournament Sunday afternoon.
The tournament, presented by the Indianapolis Colts, is slated to begin Oct. 20 for Class 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A and 5A teams. Class 6A teams will open sectional play Oct. 27.
A total of 321 teams will compete in the tournament.
Sectional championship games for all six classes will be played on Nov. 3; Regional action is slated for Nov. 10; Semistate championship games will be played Nov. 17. The state finals will be held Nov. 24 for Class 1A, 3A and 5A, and Nov. 25 for Class 2A, 4A and 6A.
The state championship games will be played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Among the six teams in the Times-Union coverage area, only two will open play with a home game.
The Warsaw Tigers, who improved to 4-3 Friday with a 35-13 win over Wawasee, will host Chesterton (3-4) on Oct. 27 in Class 6A Sectional 2 action.
Seventh-ranked Valparaiso will host No. 8 Penn in the other half of the four-team bracket.
In the eight-team Class 1A Sectional 41 bracket, the Triton Trojans will host Caston in the opener. The Trojans, currently 5-2, beat the Comets (1-6) by a 50-13 score on Sept. 1 in Bourbon. The teams also met in the sectional opener a year ago, with Triton winning 50-0.
The Wawasee Warriors (1-6) will travel to No. 6 Angola (7-0) to open play in the loaded eight-team Class 4A Sectional 19.
Six of the eight teams in the sectional are at least 5-2 currently.
The field includes No. 5 Northridge, No. 7 NorthWood and No. 12 Plymouth.
In Class 3A Sectional 27, Tippecanoe Valley (2-5) will play at fellow Three Rivers Conference school Peru (3-4) in an eight-team field that features just two teams that currently have winning records.
No. 12 Knox is 6-1, with its only loss coming to 1A No. 1 Pioneer. Mishawaka Marian (4-3) is the only other team in Sectional 41 with a winning record.
The eight-team Class 2A Sectional 34 field includes two local teams.
Whitko (0-7) will open play at Central Noble (6-1), while Manchester (2-5) travels to Wabash (0-7).
The Sectional 34 field includes No. 2 Woodlan (6-1), whose only loss this season came Saturday in a 27-20 setback at Lima Central Catholic in Ohio.
